DIY Skincare: Natural Home Remedies

I want to share about my daily routine (day and night) that I religiously followed since 1.5 years ago.

I switched from medical skin clinic in medio 2014 and nearly 4 months I spent for trial and error in vast range of skincare products, comprising premium brands and drugstore. Since late 2014, I’d become an oil cleansing addict. From a premium brand to natural home remedies, this is my journey.

Spending a good hour in the internet can be productive if you’re googling for useful information. I browsed specific pages about oil cleansing, what to do and what not to do, suitable oil for different skin types, and such details. In the supermarket in my city, the options are not in wide range. I could only find olive oil, grapeseed oil, and coconut oil (even it’s the brand for cooking, so forget about cold-pressed coconut oil). Tossing coin to the air, I picked olive oil because:

a. I had a good feeling that it would work on my skin, although unclear why

b. If it didn’t, I could always use it for Italian dishes which I love

So I bought. Pinterest is my main source of information as they are presented in nice infographics. I’m kind of visual person so it helps me a lot to view the info that way. Michelle Phan’s Tube is another source of information that I compile into my own standard. My natural home remedies consist of 4 main ingredients that you should be able to find them in nearest grocers:

olive oil (or any carrier oil that works for you, plus the essential oil if you’ve found the match)

baking soda

apple cider vinegar

Additional ingredients that you’d find in pharmacies and drugstore in affordable price are:

vitamin C serum (or any serum that works for you)

face mask, use any kind you like

So here it is, my Day and Night Skincare Routine.

wipe my face using water, just tap water

tone using apple cider vinegar

moisturize+sunscreen. For me, I just skip moisturizer because my sunscreen is thick and sticky 😦 Find any sunscreen you like. I personally don’t like my current sunscreen (Banana Boat) because it still feels too sticky for me although they claim they don’t. After I finish this tube I’ll definitely go for another brand

Continue with primer and makeup. My primer is Benefit Porefessional. This, too, belongs to my list of no-repurchase. Not because I don’t like it, I just want to try a dupe or cheaper alternative. Benefit Porefessional is good, but for not dramatically different effect of matting my complexion, I’d happily try another alternative.

Cleanse. It’s either my natural home remedies of olive oil+baking soda, or Nivea micellar water if I’m too lazy to boil some water. As in oil cleansing, you have to have warm (not lukewarm) water to soak your face towel in. Massage your face using any mixture of oil you have (mine is olive oil, or olive oil+baking soda), then put the face towel on for a good couple of minutes. The warm temperature will ease the cleansing process and help the oil purify your pores. Impurities and makeup are more likely to dissolve in higher temperature than in ambient temp (science, come on). Same science that applies when you clear your face up using oil, because most of makeup nowadays is waterproof, meaning they must be oil-based. Even the mineral-based makeup is oil soluble. Extra note: olive oil+baking soda mixture get rid of your black and whiteheads effortlessly. It’s more effective than any scrub and it makes my life a whole lot easier. Thanks to any Pinners and bloggers who helped me through the journey to find this simple yet mighty combo.

Tone, tone, tone. Use apple cider vinegar for acid toning. Acid toning is hype lately, but it’s not rocket science. Our skin pH is 4,5-5, so finding acid as toner comes naturally, rather than alcohol/ethanol. I usually drop a drop or two of mineral water to a cotton pad then a drop of ACV. Don’t put undissolved ACV to your face because it stings like hell. Even after dissolving in cotton pad it still does, but I can tolerate it. If you don’t like ACV or it’s difficult to find it in your local grocers (or you might feel like trying some fancy products), a wagon of acid toners are coming our way. Just browse your favorite beauty online shop and you’ll find tons of it.

Nourish, nourish, nourish. I use my vit C serum in this step. Store your serum in your fridge because they’ll degrade if they get direct sunlight or ambient temperature. I live in tropical area so for heat and sunlight-sensitive products I won’t take a chance to store them outside.

You can see from the image above that I mix local Indonesian products with import ones.

Result: I’ve got this mindset already that cleaning with oil is cleaner than facial wash. Using facial foam doesn’t feel as clean as before.

Q : How about face masks? When do you wear it?

A : Face masks are my favorite. I’m always weak seeing the cute packages of face sheet masks (especially Korean brands). However, I’m too lazy to wear it every night. So I purchase the face sheet masks in bulk and use them occasionally, preferably on weekends or holidays. Or I feel beat up and need to refresh and rejuvenate my skin. I have mud mask, too, from Himalaya brand, that I love to wear once or twice a week. It dries the pimples and speed up the recovery process after big massive pimples.

For sheet masks, it’s after serum, because I enjoy laying in bed before drifting asleep with the sheet mask still on. For mud mask, it’s between Cleanse and Tone.

Q : Any preference of sheet masks brands?

A : Etude House, because of good packagings (yes, I’m weak for visual beauty).

Q : What about essences? Do you use them?

A : No, I don’t. No longer. I had some SK-II FTE but after I finished it, I didn’t repurchase. I try to keep my skincare routine as simple as possible, reducing all tedious steps from Korean routine to Michelle Phan’s 5 steps to 3 steps that work for me. If you’re especially dehydrated, you can always add essence to your routine. Same reason why I don’t use moisturizers.

Q : No moisturizers? But, why?

A : My sunscreen leaves sticky feeling. I don’t have any convincing reason to toss it out other than feeling sticky which can be tricked by not adding extra layer of moisturizer before it. As long as it’s not empty, I have to sacrifice the moisturising step from my routine. But dropping it doesn’t have observable adversity, yet, because my skin doesn’t show any negative impact due to lack of moisturizer. Thanks to olive oil as part of cleansing, I think my skin is still hydrated and smooth enough from the oil cleansing. Well, apparently some Vloggers believe only in oil cleansing, and their skin is healthy, so I think if my skin is still hydrated and soft, I don’t need extra moisturizer after oil cleansing.

Q : What about facial wash?

A : I still have facial wash for emergency reasons, for example when I’m super lazy and only use micellar water to cleanse my face. I must follow the micellar water step with facial wash, because I just don’t feel clean by solely micellar water.

Q : Any other skincare accessories?

A : Acne Strip. It’s gel-like acne bandaid that you can put on top of your acne. It’s supposed to be transparent, but yellowish anyway. I forgot the brand, probably something like 3M (wait…what??, maybe something else). If your pimple has ‘eye’ and the skin covering the ‘eye’ is already thin, it can suck the ‘eye’ of the acne out, thus speeding up the healing process. If the ‘eye’ is not visible yet, the acne strip won’t do anything.

Q : So basically what’s the theme of your skincare?

A : Cheap, home remedies, no (well, less) soap products, no alcohol, sans parabens (if possible). As simple as I can see the ingredients and not finding layers of them on the back label.

Q : What do you want to improve or try next?

A : Grapeseed oil, avocado oil. They are famous for handling oily skin like mine.